Description: The '20s never roared louder than in this
sumptuously romantic retelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz
Age classic. Robert Redford stars as Jay Gatsby, who had
once loved beautiful, spoiled Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow),
then lost her to a rich boy. But now Gatsby is mysteriously
wealthy... and ready to woo Daisy back. A winner of two
Academy Awards, The Great Gatsby features a fine supporting
cast and an elegant script by Francis Ford Coppola. And at
its center is the opulent evocation of an era of hot jazz
and cold champagne, of women as exotic and demanding as
hothouse flowers, and of lives made soft by too much, too
soon.

The Film:

This third film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic 1925 novel was
one of the most hyped movies of the summer of 1974. Robert Redford stars
as self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby, who uses his vast (and implicitly
ill-gotten) fortune to buy his way into Long Island society. Most of
all, Gatsby wants to win back the love of socialite Daisy Buchanan (Mia
Farrow), now married to "old money" Tom Buchanan (Bruce Dern). Calmly
observing the passing parade is Nick Carraway (Sam Waterston), Gatsby's
best friend, who narrates the film. Francis Ford Coppola's screenplay is
meticulously faithful to the original novel, but Theoni V. Aldredge's
costume design and Nelson Riddle's nostalgic musical score won the film
its only Oscars. The huge supporting cast includes Howard Da Silva, who
played Wilson in the 1949 Great Gatsby, and a very young Patsy
Kensit as Daisy's daughter.

The color is rich, the photography superb, and the atmospherics of the
roaring twenties are realistically and stunningly in evidence in this
film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece novel, but that's it.
The script is weak, short-cutted to play up scenes the author intended
to be understated, particularly those interminable soft-focus love
sequences between Farrow and Redford, the direction is haphazard at
best, and the acting is positively abysmal by all parties concerned,
except that rendered by da Silva, a wonderful old pro who appeared in
the 1949 version of this classic tale. Redford essays Gatsby, the
charade-playing gangster who loves married Mia from afar, throwing
fabulous parties to get her attention, meeting her secretly in
Waterston's cottage, renewing his love for her and she for him, each
having loved the other in the bittersweet past of WW I and she having
married into wealth, he wedding violence. Dern is the smug wealthy
husband and Chiles the purring cousin who arranges the assignation
between Farrow and Redford. Black plays Myrtle, cheating wife of
garageman Wilson (same name as the character) who is seeing Dern on the
side.

Image : NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.

The
Great Gatsbyarrives
on
Blu-ray
from Paramount in a bland 1.78:1 1080P transfer. The image quality shows some
improvement over SD with a few sequences showing depth and
the colors and contrast rise a notch or two. The 2.5
hour film is housed on a dual-layered disc with a high
bitrate. There are some impressive shots in the film but the
HD never really rises to an overwhelming status.
It looks 'good' - clean, consistent, reasonably sharp - but
that's it. This
Blu-ray
, like the film, never really punches through the facade of
its splendid art direction. After you settle in to the
period elegance - the visuals are kind of hollow -
which is probably more a reflection on how it originally
looked than any fault of the transfer.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Audio :

Audio seems
more than adequate with a robust DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track at a
healthy 3330 kbps. Mostly a passive film, sound wise, but there is some
music; The Charleston and a few pieces performed by Nick Lucas that
sound quite strong. There are optional subtitles and m

y Momitsu
has identified
it as being a region FREE disc playable on
Blu-ray
machines worldwide.

Extras :

Nothing at all
- not even a trailer.

BOTTOM LINE:

This film version of The Great Gatsby never really
finds its stride. The art direction, costumes and performances are all on tap - but
the script was lacking the punch of the novel. I expect the
forthcoming Baz Luhrmann effort will eclipse - certainly in
terms of visual splendor. The
Blu-ray falls short as well - with no supplements, or anything that might
have encouraged appreciation of the film - that strangely
seems dated. I'd suggest a 'pass'.

Gary Tooze

April 23rd, 2013

About the Reviewer:
Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film
since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was
around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my
horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out
new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500
DVDs and have reviewed over 5000 myself. I appreciate my
discussion Listserv for furthering my film
education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver.
Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our
Amazon links.

Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction.